The Dartmouth Observer |
|
|
Commentary on politics, history, culture, and literature by two Dartmouth graduates and their buddies
WHO WE ARE Chien Wen Kung graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and majored in History and English. He is currently a civil servant in Singapore. Someday, he hopes to pursue a PhD in History. John Stevenson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a BA in Government and War and Peace Studies. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He hopes to pursue a career in teaching and research. Kwame A. Holmes did not graduate from Dartmouth. However, after graduating from Florida A+M University in 2003, he began a doctorate in history at the University of Illinois--Urbana Champaign. Having moved to Chicago to write a dissertation on Black-Gay-Urban life in Washington D.C., he attached himself to the leg of John Stevenson and is thrilled to sporadically blog on the Dartmouth Observer. Feel free to email him comments, criticisms, spelling/grammar suggestions. BLOGS/WEBSITES WE READ The American Scene Arts & Letters Daily Agenda Gap Stephen Bainbridge Jack Balkin Becker and Posner Belgravia Dispatch Black Prof The Corner Demosthenes Daniel Drezner Five Rupees Free Dartmouth Galley Slaves Instapundit Mickey Kaus The Little Green Blog Left2Right Joe Malchow Josh Marshall OxBlog Bradford Plumer Political Theory Daily Info Andrew Samwick Right Reason Andrew Seal Andrew Sullivan Supreme Court Blog Tapped Tech Central Station UChicago Law Faculty Blog Volokh Conspiracy Washington Monthly Winds of Change Matthew Yglesias ARCHIVES BOOKS WE'RE READING CW's Books John's Books STUFF Site Feed    |
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Those Crazy Candidates G.W. Bush had a great retort to Kerry's claim that he has "conservative values" (as Reason notes, "though, to be fair, Bush started it by stealing compassion from the Democrats"), which is actually kind of amusing: AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!The most amusing comment of the evening was, however, "My opponents look at all this progress and somehow conclude that the sky is falling. (Laughter.) But whether their message is delivered with a frown or a smile, it's the same old pessimism. And to cheer us up, they propose higher taxes -- AUDIENCE: Booo!None of this should be interpeted as an endorsement, really, of either "side." Politics is, if one stops to think about it, simply an exercise in farce, merely;a choice between going over the cliff at 65 mph vs. 45 mph with a side debate over whether the engine of destruction will be environmentally friendly. Pundit Sheldmon Richman is a bit too optimistic when describing Election 2004 as "An Echo, Not a Choice" by presuming there was something there in the first place. I would much rather have some of my friends running the White House than either of the men churned up the national Republican and Democratic parties. For starters, here's a good primer concerning Bush, nicely titled: "Ten Reasons to Fire George Bush, and Nine Reasons Kerry won't be better". Unfortunately it was written by those silly libertarians whose ideology blinds them from deficit of justice in American society, but what can you expect from ideologues who believe that a strictly unregulated market society is best thing since revealed religion? |